


How That Sentence Ended

by lookinginthelight



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf Bay, Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, F/M, Gen, Stand Alone, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:46:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookinginthelight/pseuds/lookinginthelight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quite simply, this is how that sentence ended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How That Sentence Ended

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's been written to death but here's mine :)

The Doctor was watching himself (or rather, a version of himself who still had two hearts and couldn't tell Rose Tyler that he loved her) stand uncomfortably with his hands jammed in his pockets. His eyes move to Rose, who is standing between them. Her gaze is fixed on the Doctor, the  _other_ Doctor, who is the cause of her furrowed brow, her pleading eyes-attempting to blink back her pain.   
  
He's waiting. They're talking- Rose, and the other Doctor, but their words aren't landing. He knows she's going to turn to  _him_. To ask  _him_  how that sentence was going to end. His heart ( _heart_ , singular, he keeps reminding himself) knocks wildly against his chest. He's trying to keep his expression neutral. He doesn't know if this body will betray him, if his face will give away how terrified he is.   
  
He can almost still feel her hand pressed against his chest, testing to see if he really  _was_  human. When he'd told her he could grow old with her.  
  
 _Together._    
  
He felt a warmth building in him, radiating out from where her hand had rested. She's turned her head now, to face  _him_ , with the same expectant -if not slightly more hopeful- look on her face.   
  
"And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"  
  
He flashes back to standing in the TARDIS, after saying goodbye to Rose, (Rose Tyler-) remembering a single tear escaping his eye.  _She knew. Of course she knew. She had to know._  Those words had been hanging on his lips for years. Now he could say them. He could let her promise him forever. _Not forever, but long enough. He's only got one life, but he can spend it with her._  
  
He reached out and put his hand lightly on Rose's arm. As he leaned in, he was overwhelmed by a rush of hormones- much more powerful in this body. He breathed in a smell that could only be described as sea air and electricity, and  _Rose._  He tilted his head, letting his lips nearly brush her ear. These words were  _Rose's_ , only for her.  
  
Before he realized it, he was whispering the words he never before could say.  
  
\---   
  
Rose can feel his words against her ear- the answer she'd crossed universes for. She almost didn't hear them. It seemed too good; so much like a dream that her ears focused on the roar of the waves rather than his voice because her senses were at least certain that it was  _real_.  
  
But this man, this Doctor, saying  _those words_  in her ear- he couldn't be real. So her senses locked on everything else around her: the smell of salt in the air, the faint cries of seagulls, the moisture beading on the back of her neck, the low hum of the TARDIS in the distance, and the waves trying to drown out the Doctor's words.  
  
He's leaning away now. It's all still very unreal, but Rose lets herself believe it just long enough to look up at this Doctor. She's trying to ask a question with her eyes- she couldn't speak even if she wanted to.  _His_  face is saying something she can't interpret. Reassurance? That's what Rose tells herself.  
  
She hasn't  _forgotten_  the other Doctor. The real Doctor( _her_  Doctor?). But every bit of her attention is on this new man. This unreal Doctor, still  _staring at her_. She can't understand what he is-  _who_  he is. He said he has all the same thoughts, all the same memories. Everything the same but  _just one heart._    
  
It's not on purpose. Rose is exhausted, she's terrified, angry, and fighting back a searing wave of pain. She's not totally in control of her actions. Rose is still half-convinced this is a dream. She's thinking about that heart again. That one heart, and the one life that comes with it. She wants to check again, to see if it's real. To feel one simple,  _human_  heartbeat under her palm.   
  
It's that thought that sends her hands forward, reaching out towards him. But instead of resting on his chest, testing for a heart beat, her fingers are curling under the lapels of his suit. Her hands tighten. Rose pulls him forward, gently. After all, if this is a dream, this is how she wants it to end.  
  
He isn't resisting. She's pulling him closer,  _impossibly_  close. Rose can feel the worn fabric of his suit under her fingers. She's looking up into his eyes-deep, and brown, and so  _soft_. His smell floods her senses. It's something distinctly alien, as always, but a little less than before.  _This must be real._  Rose closes her eyes, his words still echoing in her ears.


End file.
